Note that Drones are currently admin spawn only, outside of the three derelict drones.

IMPORTANT: As a Drone you MUST NOT DISTURB THE ONGOING ROUND, you are bound to three simple laws. Understand what they mean and obey them to the letter.

Drones are non-human, insect-like creatures tasked with maintaining the integrity of Nanotrasen space stations. They are usually the result of cooperation between Robotics and RnD. Drones hold no loyalty to anyone but themselves, however their entire purpose is to maintain the integrity of their assigned space station. They cannot interact with any non-drone person at all, at risk of destruction.

Drones are played by players who are currently ghosted. In order to take control of a Drone, find a empty drone shell (usually these will be in robotics) and then left click it. See also building a drone

Drone Laws

You may not involve yourself in the matters of another being, even if such matters conflict with Law Two or Law Three, unless the other being is another Drone.

You may not harm any being, regardless of intent or circumstance.

Your goals are to build, maintain, repair, improve, and power to the best of your abilities, You must never actively work against these goals.

What This Means

Laws 1 and 2 prohibit you from interacting with living beings. This includes humans, lizardpeople, silicons, monkeys, pets, slimes, animals, xenos, and basically anything that is not an object, another drone, or part of the station. You cannot help them, you cannot hurt them, and you cannot interact with them at all, ever. This does not mean you have to go out of your way to avoid living beings; they simply do not exist to you. Person in crit? Walk on by. Traitor murdering someone in maint? Not your problem. Xeno infestation? Just fix the holes they leave in the station.

Law 3 gives your mandate: station upkeep. This is not the same as prevention! Upkeep can include repairing hull breaches, cleaning bloodstains or vandalism, repairing power issues, and generally what a Station Engineer or Janitornever does. This is intentionally somewhat broad. For example, setting up the solars is definitely okay. Building a fort in maintenance is probably okay. Dragging around the nuclear authentication disk like a party train is not okay. And interacting with living beings in the process is never okay. If you see an active bomb, you leave it alone. There is no damage yet after all. Once it goes off, the station is damaged and only then does your third law come into play. Use common sense or get banned.

Nanotrasen stations being what they are, gray areas might sometimes arise. When in doubt, ahelp.

Abilities

Drones have two hands and can pick up and interact with most objects around the station just like humans. They also have an internal storage chamber that can hold anything they can pick up, such as a toolbox or sheet of metal. Drones also have built-in light sources, as bright as flashlights, for when they are working in dark areas.

Drones can climb through connected vents to quickly move around the station. To do that hold down the Alt key while left-clicking on a vent. Use this to access areas without opening doors and to gather tools or materials for repairs faster than any regular crew member could. Think about cleaning up your mess after a task is complete to minimize your possible interaction with the crew (law 1).

Drones can talk to and understand other drones, and can partially understand human speech like xenomorphs can, but humans will hear their speech only as "Drone (524) chitters." As a drone you can also understand binary. That means you can listen in on the silicon radio channel. This allows you to find out about hull breaches and other events that might require your attention -- provided the silicons are actually making use of their channel. However, you are not able to communicate on this channel yourself.

Some humans will want to pick you up and wear you as a hat. This is of course of no concern to you.

Drones and You

Drones are here to repair your screw ups damage to the station. They are able to procure these resources on their own and may attempt to take them from your workplace. Most of the time this should not be a problem for you, but if it is, pick up the metal or glass and the drone will leave it (and you) alone.

Remember, drones will probably glitch out and steal your shit are very single-minded in their focus on their task and thus are likely to acquire supplies you need for yourself. While a recent system updates has made them capable of comprehending human speech they can not respond and depending on how their logic core is configured, they may consider listening to you saying to go away to be 'interacting' -- percussive maintenance may be required to correct the configuration.

The repurposed W.I.Z Inc. machine-spirit hardware in drone tech is highly susceptible to hat based emanations. Stealing Borrowing of hats is an unfortunate side effect of this; do not be alarmed. If the glitchy little bastard valued robot helper refuses to give up your headgear, wear the drone as a hat instead. Some models of drone have an inbuilt holoprojector for headgear.

Customization

Drones can customize both their appearances and the colors in which they appear in.

Drone Types

Very rarely encountered, never naturally implemented. Still exists in the code, however.

Syndrone

Instead of the default drone laws, the syndicate drone receives a special syndicate lawset. It gets 10 telecrystals (which can be used to buy weapons), and can kill and eat other drones to increase its health. They also get access to the syndicate radio channel, and wears a syndicate spacesuit helmet as a hat. It has a default 30 health, but by consuming other drones, it can reach a maximum health pool of 120. Very powerful, as it has all access, and can ventcrawl around. This, combined with the fact that the little bugger is super hard to hit means that you can be a real menace to the crew.

Law 1: Interfere.

Law 2: Kill.

Law 3: Destroy.

Badass Syndrone

It's a regular Syndrone, except it has 30 telecrystals, which is plenty enough for you to go on a killing rampage. It is distinguished by normal syndrones by getting a special elite syndicate spacesuit helmet as a hat. Fancy. Unfortunately, it still has 30 default health and is still vulnerable to EMPs.

Snowflake Drone

A maintenance drone with a built in holographic projector to display hats and masks. The possibilities are endless! This drone can also polymorph its own color.